New Pier For Ring Netters 21st October 1967
A new wooden pier in An t-Ob estuary, specifically built for use by the six ring net fishing boats operating out of Kyleakin, is now complete. The ring netters set out on Monday mornings to spend a week at sea in pursuit of herring, fishing mainly at night in the Minch and around the Outer Isles. The boats work in pairs, drawing a net across the surface of the water in the wide ring closing around the herring. The bottom of the net is then hauled up full of fish. The catch is usually landed at Stornoway or Mallaig and the ring netters return home on Friday evening and tie up the boats for the weekend at the new pier.
Fishermen are looking forward to a good season with the return of the herring shoals to the West Coast. Herring lassies from Fraserburgh can be heard singing in their raucous Scots language, so different from our softly spoken Gaelic, as they gut the fish and then pack them into barrels which will be taken away by ship to Glasgow. The girls follow the fleet of fishing boats sailing around the North Coast of Scotland in pursuit of the "Silver Darlings".
Famous Author Plans Wildlife Sanctuary for Island 9th January 1965
Gavin Maxwell, the author of Ring of Bright Water, has purchased and recently renovated
the lighthouse cottages on Eilean Ban, the small island off Kyleakin. The island boasts a
70ft high lighthouse built in 1857 by D & T. Stevenson, father and uncle of the author
Robert Louis Stevenson. Mr. Maxwell plans to turn the island into a wildlife sanctuary.
The small island made of sea volcanic boss and includes a wide variety of habitats. Rare
variety of liverwort (Geocalyx graveolens) of national importance grows here under
protection. Killer whales, dolphins, porpoises and basking sharks can all be found in the
sea around this area. Mr Maxwell hopes to set up a colony of Eider ducks and bring with
him the famous otter Teko. 
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Copyright (c) Ray Shields, 2006
Most recent revision, 26 July 2006